The Buyers Agents here at The Joe Reed Team are not “ordinary agents” who send you properties from the MLS and wait for you to tell them if you like one. They are up early checking to see what has been listed over night, they are checking throughout the day for the perfect one to pop up and get you in before any other Buyers get a chance to see it. They are talking and networking with other agents about properties that are about to hit the market or that have recently expired and are no longer available to the public thru the internet or websites. They are previewing properties for you so that they don’t waste your precious time with properties that won’t work. Simply put, they just worked harder and smarter than most agents to ultimately get you thru the front door of the house that you are going to fall in love with.

Call us today at 970-270-7505 or visit our website www.thejoereedteam.com to get to know Adam, Chad or Cody and have them help you find the perfect home to fall in love with.

Buying a Home in the Spring

Spring and summer are the high season for buying a home: according to one estimate, about 40 percent of home sales happen from April through July. Spring is a great time to buy a home, because buyers can move in better weather, have months to fix up the house before the cold sets in, and can get kids settled before the school year begins.
However, those advantages also mean that spring can be a competitive time to house-hunt. It’s important to be prepared: Know what you want, what you’re willing to trade off and how much you can spend, and be ready to move quickly when you find the home you want.

Set Your Budget for Buying a Home

First, decide how much house you can afford. Besides monthly mortgage payments, you must have enough money for a down payment, closing costs, moving and the initial expenses of living in the home, including things like new furniture and paint.
The Mortgage Bankers Association recommends that buyers spend no more than 2.5 times their income on a home. Total housing payments should not exceed 28 percent of your gross income, and total debt payments should be less than 36 percent. That means payments on all loans, including your mortgage, student loans, auto loans and credit card debt. Try our Home Affordability Calculator to do the math.

Determine Your Home Wants and Needs

Before setting out on your search for a home, determine your needs. Make a list of what you absolutely must have and what you would be willing to forgo. Research the neighborhoods that interest you. Check out the schools, the local services and the public facilities and speak to people on the street to get a feel for the area.

Choose a Good Real Estate Agent

Local agents offer information you can’t always find online or through property listings. Agents know the prices of recently sold properties, and many have a good handle on what a house is worth. A buyer’s agent will represent your interests; helping you find homes that fit your budget and list of requirements and helping you get the best deal.

Get Mortgage Loan Pre-Approval

Speak with several mortgage lenders, online and off, and choose the best rate and the most appropriate terms for your budget. The low rates that are available may not last indefinitely, so see if you can lock in all or part of the loan. Many lenders offer various plans for your monthly payments. With a mortgage loan pre-approval in hand, you’ll be ready to act quickly when you find a home you want to make an offer on.

If You Are Thinking of Selling, Now Is The Time!

Jonathan Smoke, the Chief Economist of realtor.com, in a recent article revealed that:

“Would-be buyers face a dilemma: There will be more homes on the market over each week of the next three to four months, but there will also be even more prospective buyers. We are entering the busiest season of home buying with the lowest amount of inventory in three years. To be competitive, buyers should get pre-approved for a mortgage and be ready to act quickly if they find a home that meets their needs.”

If you thought about selling your house this year, now may be the time to do it. The inventory of

homes for sale is well below historic norms and buyer demand is skyrocketing. We were still in

high school when we learned the concept of supply and demand: the best time to sell something

is when supply of that item is low and demand for that item is high. That defines today’s real

estate market.

Smoke goes on to say:

“Listings are growing as they normally do this time of the year, but because demand has been growing faster than supply, homes are selling faster. So the monthly trend is the normal seasonal pattern, but the year-over-year decline is reflective of demand being stronger than supply for more than a year, which is resulting in fewer homes available and faster-moving inventory.”

In this type of market, a seller may hold a major negotiating advantage when it comes to price

and other aspects of the real estate transaction including the inspection, appraisal and financing

contingencies.

Bottom Line

As a potential seller, you are in the driver’s seat right now. It might be time to hit the gas.

Blog by: The KCM Crew

For information on how to sell your house FAST and for MORE contact The Joe Reed Team now.

Change Is In The Air

Change is definitely in the air early this year in Colorado. Being born and raised in Colorado, I have learned that our beautiful state and this industry can throw just about anything at us. The changes in Autumn make it my favorite season. Maybe that is one of the reasons I love Colorado and in particular, the Grand Valley.

I have always believed that while sometimes tough, change is good. One of my favorite quotes about change is, “Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender who you are for what you could become”. With that being said, we at The Joe Reed Team have had some changes that I would like to share with you. As you know we have always tried to provide the best support team to our agents and to you, our clients.

Kristie Clark has played a vital role in that but now has taken on a new role with our team. She is now the Buyer’s Coordinator for the team. We are very excited for her to bring her knowledge and spirit to another division of The Joe Reed Team.

I would also like to introduce Nicolle Lewis, our new Listing Coordinator. She is a tremendous asset to our team and we couldn’t be happier with where things sit for us as we move into the 4th Quarter.

I want to thank you for taking a moment to read our blog and we look forward to helping you, your friends and your family with all of their real estate needs.

If you decide to deep fry a turkey, move away from the house and use a long-handled tool, as this firefighter shows. By HomeInsurance.com The countdown to turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie has begun. Thanksgiving’s arrival means many of us are scouring the closet for pants with stretchy waistbands so we can prepare to feast.

The holiday is all about giving thanks and spending a day with loved ones. But cooking the festive Thanksgiving meal can lead to fires. And fires can lead to injuries, deaths or property loss, so make sure to follow some safety suggestions for this holiday.

Check the Stats

Thanksgiving Day is the peak day for cooking fires in homes, accounting for about three times as many fires as any other day of the year, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).

Each year between 2011 and 2013, Thanksgiving Day produced an average of 2,100 residential building fires, resulting in $28 million in property damage, 50 injuries, and 10 deaths, according to a report by the U.S. Fire Administration.

What causes most Thanksgiving fires? More than 71 percent of fires were attributed to cooking, and the highest percentage of fires (24.6 percent) occurred between noon and 3 p.m., the report said.

Eyes on the Prize

Er, turkey. Leaving food unattended while it was cooking was the leading cause of Thanksgiving cooking fires, according to the NFPA. You’ll want to visit with your guests during this holiday, but it’s far more important to pay attention to what’s in the oven or on the stovetop so that you don’t become a statistic.

Also, assign guests items to bring for the meal. Having a potluck-style Thanksgiving dinner will prevent you from doing all the cooking, so you won’t be trying to cook multiple dishes at once. Giving your undivided attention to one dish at a time will help to keep food from burning and starting fires.

And when you want to chat with your guests while you’re cooking, call them into the kitchen with you. Leaving the room while food is in the oven or on the burners is a risky move that makes your insurance provider sweat.

Don’t Wear Loose Clothing While Cooking

Let’s set the scene: You’re wearing a baggy sweater as you cook vegetables in oil or butter, and you divert your attention to talk to a family member. A fire ignites, and, in a panic, you attempt to move the pan to the sink to run water over it. When you move the pan, your loose sleeve connects with the flames and, in a flash, your entire arm is on fire.

There are several things wrong with this scenario. The first is that you should avoid wearing loose-fitting clothes while cooking, as it puts you at an increased risk to catch fire and be injured.

Secondly, never move a pot that’s on fire, or try to put out a grease or oil fire with water. It’s best to put a lid on top of the pot to smother the fire, leave the pot where it is, and turn the heat off when the fire has been tamed.

Getting distracted while cooking is also a no-no.

Keep Fire Hazards Away From the Stove

Just like ill-fitting clothing is a hazard that can easily ignite, so are things like potholders, wooden utensils, towels, and flowers. Keep these items away from burners and the oven to reduce the chances of having a kitchen fire.

It’s also important to keep pets out of the kitchen. Say you just turned off the burner, but your pup comes sniffing around, puts his paws up on the counter, and accidentally slides a towel on top of the still-hot burner without you noticing, causing it to be engulfed in flames. Avoid this type of scenario by keeping the dog in a gated room and keeping other hazards at bay.

Know the Biggest Risks

Frying is the greatest risk for home fires. So if you’re deep-frying the turkey this year, take extra precautions.

Keep the fryer away from the house and on even ground. The fryer should be set up more than 10 feet away from the home, and on level ground to keep the oil even.
Completely thaw and dry the turkey first. Only fry a turkey after it has been fully thawed and dried off to reduce the possibility of splattering grease, which can ignite fires.
Keep children and pets away, and have a fire extinguisher nearby. The last thing you want on Thanksgiving Day is for a child or pet to knock over the fryer and get injured.
If You Have a Thanksgiving Day Fire

The majority of non-fatal Thanksgiving Day fire injuries occurred when people tried to fight the fires themselves. If your home catches fire when you’re preparing Thanksgiving dinner and you don’t have a fire extinguisher on hand, just get everyone out of the house.

Keep yourself, your family, and your guests safe. You can call 911 when everyone has evacuated.

The good news is that property damage and liability coverage for incidents involving fires are typically eligible for coverage under standard home insurance policies. That’s something to be thankful for.

How to Sell Your Home Quickly Over the Holiday Season
It’s tempting for many sellers to take a step back over the holiday season and wait to list their home until after the New Year. Some sellers may even pull their homes off the market temporarily to relist once the holidays are safely behind them.
This strategy works well for sellers who may have other obligations and can’t be as committed to the sale of their home during the holidays. Admittedly, there are many distractions – holiday parties, family obligations and an endless to-do list. But if you’re motivated to sell, staying focused during the holidays can really pay off.
The end of the year is typically a slower time of year for the real estate market. For motivated sellers, that means less competition. Once the New Year hits, there will likely be a flood of inventory from all those sellers who were holding off on listing their homes. Take advantage of the lack of inventory during this season to make your home stand out and attract your ideal buyer. The holiday season can present some unique opportunities to get your home sold quickly if you take the appropriate steps.
Price competitively. One sure way to make your home stand out against the competition is to price appropriately. The market is incredibly price sensitive. Even slightly over-pricing a home can result in lost momentum and extra days on the market. If your goal is to sell quickly, then over-pricing is not an option.
There may be fewer buyers actively looking on the market during the holidays, but more of these buyers will be serious prospects who are also making their home search a priority. Work with your listing agent to develop an appropriate pricing strategy that works for you and that will also catch the attention of potential buyers.
Make your home shine. Make sure your home is showing at its best. This is the golden rule no matter what time of year you’re listing your home, but it can be especially difficult over the holiday season. Out-of-town guests, holiday decorations and winter weather can all be challenges to getting your home in showing condition.
Holiday lighting, a fire crackling in the hearth, and festive decorations can make a home feel inviting and appealing but only if it’s been executed correctly. Think classic and minimal. Going overboard with holiday lawn ornaments, chotchkies or flashing, multi-colored lights could be a major distraction for buyers. Less is more.
Decorate strategically, get organized, and make a plan so you can easily and painlessly get your home ready for a last-minute showing request.
And if you’re putting your home on the market for the first time, you may want to hold off on the holiday decorations altogether, or remove them temporarily for the photo shoot. Second to price, excellent photography is one of the most important ways to make your home shine and to catch the eye of potential buyers.
A few extra pieces on the fireplace mantel or a garland on the banister can probably be overlooked in person, but it could stand out like a sore thumb in your property photos and distract buyers from noticing your home’s most impressive selling points.
Be flexible. The best way to sell your home during the holidays is to be flexible and make your home easy and available to show. This can be easier said than done, but it’s important to keep your end goals in mind. You’ve already gone through the work of getting your home ready to sell over the holidays, but if you don’t make your schedule flexible enough to get buyers in to see it, it will all be a wasted effort.
Buyers who are looking during the holiday season are often more serious and more motivated to buy and close quickly. Both buyers and sellers alike may take advantage of tax incentives for closing before the end of the year. Although, you should speak with your tax advisor regarding your individual tax situation.
Selling during the holidays also allows you to reach out-of-town buyers who may only be in town for a short time, house hunting during their vacation or in-between visiting family. Scheduling during the holidays can be difficult, so the more flexible you can be to get buyers in the door, the better the chance of a successful sale.
For serious sellers, listing your home over the holidays has its definite advantages. Less inventory means less competition and buyers who are searching over the holidays tend to be more motivated and willing to close fast.
Set yourself up for success to sell your home quickly over this holiday season. Price competitively to attract buyers, make your home shine (less is more), be flexible about scheduling so you can get potential buyers through the door and stay focused. Because, ultimately, what better way to start the New Year than with a fresh start and the successful sale of your home?
Blog by: Sally Forster Jones

After helping people buy and sell real estate for over 12 years, I hear all people tell me all the time that they didn’t know where to start, what to do, what not to do, and they were a little scared. I ask them, “Well how did you decide to call me” and they almost always say, “our friends used you or we saw you sell that house down the street” or something to that effect.

It started me to think, what does the person do who doesn’t know someone or is going to start this process alone?

So with the beginning of 2017 here I decided to give my advice to those individuals who need help starting the process of buying or selling.

If you are selling your home:

ALWAYS make sure that the Realtor you are considering is a Realtor. Every agent is not a REALTOR®, but most are. If you’re unsure, you can ask your agent if they’re a licensed REALTOR®. REALTORS® are held to a higher ethical standard than licensed agents and must adhere to a Code of Ethics. Some REALTORS® are brokers, while some are agents. Unfortunately, people use the term interchangeably: there are some differences.

Interview more than one agent! I would suggest that you interview 3 agents. That way even if you go with the one you like the most from the get go, you will know that you made the right decision and won’t question, “what could have been”

Ask questions! Don’t be shy to ask the tough questions. These are some of the ones I recommend.

How long have you been a Realtor?

Have you sold homes like mine previously?

What are your marketing strategies to help sell my home?

Are you a full time agent?

Does the agent communicate in a way that works for you? i.e. – texting, social media etc..

If you are Buying a home, here are some questions to ask your Buyers Agent

Are you a full time agent?

Is this agent able to show you homes in the time frames you need?

How long have they been an agent?

How strong of a negotiator is this agent?

What tools does this agent have to help you see a home before anyone else does?

Does the agent communicate in a way that works for you? i.e. – texting, social media etc..

Some additional questions you should ask are:

Ask the agent why they like real estate. This one can really give you a good feel for if you have the right agent for you. You are going to be spending a lot of time with this person and so you want to have a good relationship with your agent.

How many homes did you and your brokerage sell last year? This is important to know because you will learn how much experience they have as well as how familiar they are with the market.

We at The Joe Reed Team are full time real estate team dedicated to excellence. We would love an opportunity to meet with you whether you are buying or selling or investing. Call us today at 970-270-7505, isit our website atwww.joereedteam.com, or catch up with us on social media.

Tired of looking at house after house after house only to discover that none of the options you’ve been shown really matches up with the home in your head? Worried that you’ll exhaust your options without ever discovering the perfect home? Here’s what you need to know.

There’s No Such Thing

First and foremost, understand that no home is perfect. The best you can do is to match your needs and wants as closely as possible. There WILL be a need to compromise. There’s simply no getting around it. Short of having a home custom designed and built to your specifications (and often, even then), you’ll never ever find a home that perfectly matches that image in your head.

Explain to Your Realtor

It might not be that your expectations are out of line with reality. It might be that your realtor simply doesn’t know what you want and what you value most in a home. Explain your expectations to the real estate agent you’re working with. This goes beyond the number of bedrooms and baths. You need to share your hopes and dreams for the home, as well as the most important features that you MUST have.

Be Honest with Yourself

It might be that you need to dump a cold bucket of water over your head and look at things a bit more realistically. There will be some need to compromise, but if you’re not willing to do so, you won’t find the perfect house. What features do you have to have, and which would merely be nice to have? What can you live without, so long as certain other requirements are met?

With these tips, you’ll be better prepared to find a house that, if not perfect, meets your needs and will become a home you love.

When you purchase a property in Grand Junction that is governed by a homeowner’s association (HOA) you are paying a mandatory fee monthly, quarterly, or annually. Depending on how upscale (i.e. expensive) the properties in the community are, fees can range anywhere from $100-400/month.

HOA fees typically get funneled into maintaining communal areas like parks, greenbelts, pools, landscaping, and sidewalks. One of the major positives to living in an HOA-controlled community is that homeowners’ property values and quality of life are protected.

However, there are certainly negatives to living in an HOA community. For instance, if you consider yourself a big fan of the color pink and decide you want to paint your house that color, you have to ask permission from the HOA before you paint and if pink isn’t an approved color, tough luck. Many residents dislike HOAs because they feel that they are being patrolled and harassed constantly about maintaining their yards and home exteriors.

In addition to funding communal projects and upkeep, HOA’s also have a set of rules, or covenants, that residents must abide. These rules can include what colors you are allowed to paint your front door, house exterior, what types of basketball hoops you are allowed to display, what kind of trees you can plant, and the list goes on. If you consider yourself a lone ranger type that doesn’t like to be told what to do, perhaps an HOA community is not for you.

Before purchasing a home in this type of community, make sure you know the HOA’s rules and that they home(s) you want to purchase are not already breaking any of those rules. Consider how you will feel when the HOA tells you to tear down that beautiful new shed you built because it isn’t allowed per the covenant. Asking questions now will save you from potential headaches in the future.

Whenever I go to a listing appointment, I always ask the question, “Why am I here?” I feel like it sets the tone and it makes the seller(s) more comfortable. I think most people have this preconceived idea that I am going to come into their house and tell them it is a dump and they have to put a free sign on the corner for it.

I am a black and white kind of guy. Let’s be honest. There are no secrets in real estate any longer. Everything, and I do mean everything, is public knowledge. If people actually don’t know, they will just make something up. So I am going to share with you the top 5 things I will tell you that the “other” agents won’t.

1) You have to clean up.

Look, I don’t care how you live when your house is not on the market. No judgements from me. However, if you want your house to sell and not just be “on the market,” you have to do what I say, and the first thing is – make it look like it could appear in a magazine. Paint, clean, and I do mean C L E A N, de clutter, pack everything that isn’t used on a day to day basis, stage, and most importantly — fix anything that is wrong with the house.

2) You have to be priced right.

There is nothing wrong with being a tad over the market if you are in a high demand market; but if not, you need to be priced right. If the buyers have a good agent, they will know what your house is worth before they even step foot inside it. Remember, all sales are public knowledge. And if that isn’t enough, our good friends over at Zillow think you should be giving it away, so be smart and price with the market. It will save you frustration in the end!

3) You have to be ready for showings.

Look, I get it, having your house on the market is right up there with having dental work done. It is awful. The one day that you don’t make your bed is when someone wants to come see it; and having kids, just amplifies the horror of having your house on the market, but if you are serious about selling, you have to be ready for anything, anytime, and from anyone.

4) Don’t take offense!

Buyers can be brutal; but most of the time, they are just saying how they feel your house stacks up to the other houses they have seen, which leads me back to points 1 and 2.

5) Be honest

Be honest with yourself, be honest with me, and be honest with buyers. You can’t hide anything they or I won’t find out about. Trust me! There are a bunch of Sherlock Holmes walking in and out of your house, and people sue for dumb things, so disclose disclose, disclose!

I hope all of this doesn’t scare you away from selling because they are very simple rules; but if you follow them and hire us at The Joe Reed Team, we can help you navigate the waters of the real estate market and better yet, we have partners in place to help you do all of these things! As always, leave a comment, call, text, email, or find us on social media.

🏠JUST SOLD🏠 This home and property at 1941 N Road was JUST SOLD by Joe Reed and The Joe Reed Team for $555,000. Let the new adventure begin!!
#JustSold #fruita #westslopebestslope #realtorlife #remaxhustle #thejoereedteam #trustjoereed

🙌JUST SOLD🙌 This home at 1616 Powis Lane was JUST SOLD by Joe Reed and The Joe Reed Team for $415,000 with some of our favorite clients! We are excited for their family as they move on to a new adventure. #JustSold #westslopebestslope #realtorlife #remaxhustle #thejoereedteam